FedEx Championship Series: Honda CART Effort Doubles for 2001
18 January 2001
FedEx Championship Series: Honda CART Effort Doubles for 2001
TORRANCE, Calif., Jan. 17 Three series champions and
another five race winning drivers highlight the Honda-powered lineup for the
2001 CART FedEx Championship Series. It is the largest and most accomplished
field of drivers and teams in Honda's seven years of Champ Car competition.
Defending series champion Gil de Ferran, two-time title winner Alex
Zanardi and American star Michael Andretti headline the lineup; backed up by
race winners Helio Castroneves, Adrian Fernandez, Dario Franchitti, Tony
Kanaan and Paul Tracy. Second-year driver Shinji Nakano completes the
nine-driver Honda effort, nearly double the total of five cars fielded last
season, as Honda seeks its fourth CART manufacturer's championship and sixth
consecutive driver's title.
These drivers will be run by five CART teams, led by championship-winning
Marlboro Team Penske. De Ferran and teammate Castroneves accounted for a
total of five race wins this year, the most of any team in the series, as
Penske returned to Champ Car prominence and claimed its first championship
since 1994.
Now entering its fifth season of utilizing Honda power, Team KOOL Green
will again field the winning duo of Franchitti and Tracy. With three
victories last season, Tracy was a season-long contender for the title, while
Franchitti has a total of six career wins and was championship runner-up in
1999. Meanwhile, 1991 series champion -- and active career victory leader
with 40 race wins -- Michael Andretti heads the new Team Motorola operation,
run in a technical partnership with the Team KOOL Green effort.
After a two-year absence, Alex Zanardi returns to Champ Car racing as part
of the expanded Mo Nunn Racing team, reuniting him with Nunn, who was the
Italian's race engineer during his title-winning 1997 and '98 seasons. Tony
Kanaan, winner of the 1999 U.S. 500 for Honda, continues in his second year
with the team.
Now leading his own two-car Fernandez Racing team, Adrian Fernandez
completes the 2001 Honda field, partnered with sophomore driver Shinji Nakano
and assisted by veteran team manager and co-team owner Tom Anderson. Twice a
race winner in 2000, Fernandez took the FedEx Championship title fight down to
the season finale at California Speedway and now has seven career race wins.
To remain competitive in an ever-more challenging race series, Honda will
produce the seventh generation of its Champ Car V-8 engine for the new season.
Designated the "HR-1" series, this engine is an evolutionary development of
last year's HR-0 engine as Honda Performance Development continues a
never-ending quest to find increased performance, more efficient packaging and
greater fuel economy and efficiency.
Since the CART Manufacturer's Championship was initiated in 1995, Honda is
the only company to win the title more than twice. After winning the
championship for the first time in 1996, Honda won again in 1998 and '99.
Honda-powered drivers have also dominated the season-long battle for
individual supremacy, with a string of consecutive driver's titles beginning
with Jimmy Vasser in 1996, and extending through Zanardi (1997-98), Juan
Montoya in 1999 and de Ferran this year.
With a record 11 different race winners in 2000, the CART FedEx
Championship becomes even more competitive with each passing season. Seeking
an unprecedented fourth CART Manufacturer's Championship in 2001, Honda again
will face strong competition from Ford Cosworth and Toyota. But with five
teams and nine skilled drivers, the Honda-powered 2001 CART lineup is ready
for the challenge.
The complete 2001 Honda FedEx Championship Series Lineup:
# 1 Gil de Ferran Marlboro Team Penske
# 3 Helio Castroneves Marlboro Team Penske
#26 Paul Tracy Team KOOL Green
#27 Dario Franchitti Team KOOL Green
#39 Michael Andretti Team Motorola
#51 Adrian Fernandez Fernandez Racing
#52 Shinji Nakano Fernandez Racing
#55 Tony Kanaan Mo Nunn Racing
#66 Alex Zanardi Mo Nunn Racing